The power of change
by encarnia
Summary: 3 Years after graduation the world is grim, after seeing the house of his mentor, Minerva McGonagall, in ashes, he snaps. He challenges Voldemort one last time. He can't win, but as he falls, he discovers the power a dark lord knows not, a second chance.


**Chapter 1 - The reign of darkness**

_ (AN: This story starts 3 years after Harry graduates from Hogwarts, but only follows cannon up until Harry's fifth year. Meaning that I've elected to fully ignore what happened in Half blood prince and deathly hallows. Also meaning there are no horcruxes.)_

Darkness. Darkness was all he had known for so long. And now staring at the burning building in front of him, Harry Potter once again felt the darkness of his time. Fiendfire consumed what was once the home of Minerva McGonagall. Harry was just able to make out the manic giggle of Bellatrix Lestrange as she and the other deatheaters apparated away.

Three more wizards apparated in behind Harry. Moody, Shacklebolt and Tonks observed the wreckage before them. "Oh, no..." Tonks softly spoke. Harry was softly shaking, ever since the battle of Diagon Alley, Minerva McGonagall had become a mentor and confidant for Harry. And now she was gone.

* * *

Gone, it was a concept Harry was only to familiar with. So many people had died since Voldemort made his first public appearance at the ministry on the night Sirius Black died. Events had rapidly spiraled out of control after that night. The dementors joined Voldemort in an instant, joined in short order by the werewolves. The laws of the wizarding world made sure Voldemort did have try that hard to convince them, as they were more than eager to get out from the oppressive rule of the ministry.

Surprisingly though, Voldemort didn't launch his offensive against the wizarding world immediately. He waited for the right moment. Which came 3 days after Harry graduated from Hogwarts. An all out attack on Diagon Alley proceeded much like Voldemort had planned. The aurors were overrun, and the rest of the wizards and witches present were too busy trying to run.

Gringotts was quickly put in lockdown, and as the deatheaters destroyed the leaky cauldron there were no more exits except for a handful of floo locations. Portkey and Apparation wards went up immediately.

Unfortunately for Harry, he and the Weasleys were in Diagon Alley at that moment. As the fighting started Harry tried his best to protect all he could. But before he could even get his baring, deatheaters had already taken down Bill and Percy, with Fred going down 2 seconds later.

In all the chaos that followed, Harry was only barely aware of what was happening as he dueled deatheater after deatheater. Within 2 minutes the order of the phoenix used one of the last floo locations to lend aid. Half an hour later it was all over. The Alley was in ruins while the survivors were trying desperately to take down the apparation and portkey wards so that they could get the wounded to St. Mungo's.

Albus, Hagrid, Bill, Percy, Fred, Ginny, Arthur, Colin and Remus had all gives their lives trying to defend against the deatheaters. Hagrid fell when he turned out to be quite efficient in taking down deatheaters, as such the deatheaters quickly focussed on taking him down permanently. Of those deaths the biggest blow was the death of Albus Dumbledore. He almost managed to turn the tide, but was struck down in the back by Severus Snape.

Remus and Arthur died fighting. Harry had been devastated by the death of the last marauder, it was only a small consolation that Remus had taken Wormtail with him.  
And that wasn't all. It seemed Bellatrix had been busy in one of the shops to torture Ron and Neville. Leaving Ron in the long term ward in St. Mungo's in the same condition as Neville's parents. Neville would be forever stuck in a wheelchair.

* * *

A year after the battle of Diagon Alley, Bellatrix Lestrange managed to kidnap Hermione Granger along with her parents. To say the end result wasn't pretty would be an understatement. They left Hermione in public as a message to Harry.

It had been a deafening blow to Harry, that left him a broken man. No longer caring what happened to him he tracked down Bellatrix Lestrange. Only to find her along with 7 other deatheaters waiting for him. In a short but vicious duel Harry managed to kill Lucius Malfoy and seriously injure Bellatrix, but in the end had to apparate away, barely clinging to consciousness.

Madame Pomfrey just managed to save his life, though she could not recover the loss of Harry's right lower arm.  
Since then Harry slowly recovered, building a resistance movement spearheaded by himself and Moody. He also spent a lot of time talking to Minerva McGonagall, building into a sort of Mentor relationship he once enjoyed with Albus Dumbledore.

Using guerilla hit-and-run tactics, the resistance slowly managed to thin out Voldemorts supporters. But never managed to do any structural damage to Voldemorts ranks.

* * *

Harry snapped out of his memories as Tonks laid a hand on his shoulder. Silently cursing himself for ever learning Occlumency. It seemed that Occlumency worked to not only close his mind, but also give him an eidetic memory. Meaning that he was able to recall in perfect detail what happened during those battles. Which is the reason that not many people go through the trouble of learning it.

Shrugging of Tonks's hand, he looked once again at the ruined building. Moody and Shacklebolt were working hard to counteract the fiend fire. Minerva didn't stand a chance against it. The only way to put out fiendfire was to remove any oxygen so the fire couldn't feed itself anymore. Water was totally ineffective.

Rage started to pound inside Harry, it grew with every heartbeat. Harry closed his eyes to stop the pain at another loss in his life and said: "No more, it ends now", and before Tonks could react Harry disapparated from the ruins.

* * *

He appeared with a crack in what was left of diagon alley. The Alley was now deserted, no one dared to rebuild it. The once flourishing stores were empty en disheveled. Making the scene quite eerie. But Harry didn't care, no matter what the outcome, Harry was determined to end it once and for all. He owed it to all those who gave their lives.

Harry simply stood there in his black battle robes with red trimming while opening his mind to Voldemort, something he hadn't done since he mastered occlumency in his sixth year. Forcefully he called out through this link: "Face me now Voldemort, one last time", before closing the connection once again.

Harry didn't have to wait long, after 4 minutes Voldemort and 5 of his deatheaters apparated right in front of Harry. "Well well, Voldemort crackled, it seems that you are finally willing to face me head on, brave... foolish but brave".

"Send your lapdogs away Voldemort, this is between you and me". Voldemort eyed Harry momentarily before nodding. The 5 deatheater quickly disapparated from the scene leaving Harry and Voldemort alone.

"You caused me grief for the last time Voldemort, your will pay for all the lives you have taken, I will make sure of that". Voldemort just sneered: "Really and how do you plan to do that, you may be almost as powerful as me, but you cannot even touch me".

Harry remained silent. He knew the dark lord was right, even after all these years Harry still didn't know what the power the dark lord knows not is. Hell, he wasn't even sure the entire prophecy wasn't some hoax, especially considering the source.

Still, there was no point in dragging this out any longer, he owed it to the wizarding world for all those years of darkness they had to live through. He owed it to Sirius, Albus, Hagrid, Bill, Fred, Colin, Remus, Ron, Neville, Minerva, Hermione and everyone else who had fallen.

He owed it to those still alive, they deserved to live their life without fear and this constant darkness.

The passion in Harry's eyes caused Voldemort to experience a feeling he hadn't felt since he transformed from Tom Riddle into Voldemort... fear. Voldemort had always considered Harry a bigger threat then Dumbledore. But he also had something of respect for Harry.

He respected him for the hardship he faces and conquered, not unsimilar to his own struggles through life. If only Potter could have accepted his offer in his sixth year, but it was to late now.

Both of them wasted no time with duelling rules, this wasn't a formal duel, this was a battle to death and they knew it. Rain was pouring as the two duellists sprang into action.

Harry instantly leaped to the side giving Voldemort a volley of curses varying from Reducto curses to impedimenta and stupefy. Of course Harry intended to slowly build up his power into his spells. Voldemort however immediately started by using the crutatius curse followed by the Avada Kedavra curse.

Voldemort was forced to put up a shield to block the minor curses, which gave a Harry a little time to plan his next move. "Atare Assindre", Harry shouted. Which broke Voldemort's shield. Voldemort momentarily stumbled but then resumed his streak of powerful curses.

Harry was dodging for everything he was worth, he knew he wouldn't last very long like this, but he also knew that Voldemort couldn't keep casting these high-level curses. It was a matter of time before either of them would fail.

However, faith it seemed wasn't on Harry's side. Voldemort was firing almost at random now, with stray curses flying everywhere. One of them managed to hit Harry in the leg, causing an abrupt end to his running and dodging. This forced him to face Voldemort in a standoff.

Voldemort was panting from his efforts to hit Harry, but was also pleased that he finally got him. He drew a few big breaths and then fired again, this time not at random, but very short and controlled bursts.

Harry managed to summon the strongest shield he knew. But he also knew that his defence wouldn't last long. So he concentrated hard on his leg, forcing it to heal. Harry was panting by the time he was done healing, but renewed his efforts and jumped away from the shield, immediately going on the offensive.

Wandless magic had its uses, but were very draining. In all his jumping and rolling his missing limb didn't help either. Over the years he had learned to cast with his left hand almost as well as he once could with his right.

The curses Harry cast this time were high-level, the difference to Voldemort was that Harry didn't stand still while casting them. Within 3 minutes, Voldemort was hit at least 5 times by varying curses. A burning curse to his wand arm and right leg, a slashing curse to his left leg, an energy reducing curse to his chest and a freezing curse to his feet was the short summary of the curses that made impact.

Voldemort began to visibly weaken. He stumbled to keep standing and his shield was wavering. The rain had made puddles of mud everywhere while it continued to fall.  
Just as Harry started to have the upper hand, the 5 deatheaters apparated back to their masters side and started cursing Harry. Harry, who was unprepared for this was immediately hit by about 10 curses. He crashed to his knees in extreme pain.

"So this is the only way you could win Voldemort, by letting your lapdogs attack me if I would gain the upper hand", Harry spat in disgust. Voldemort stood strait and glared at Harry. "What did you think, that I would fight you without back-up, I'm not making the same mistake as Grindlewald".

Harry sneered back: "You have no honor Voldemort, no honor at all". This seemed to infuriate Voldemort who immediately cast the crutatius curse on Harry. And kept it on him for at least 2 minutes while Harry lay writhing and crawling on the dirty street. But Harry didn't give Voldemort the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

When Voldemort finally released the curse Harry struggled to stand up. He gripped his wand firm for a final attack. He started chanting softly under his breath. A dome appeared around Harry and Voldemort, effectively shutting the deatheaters out. The dome itself couldn't harm Voldemort, Harry knew, but at least now he only had to worry about Voldemort.

Voldemort was not in the least intimidated by this dome, he knew that the dome couldn't hurt him. He cast the crutatius curse again at Harry, who barely managed to dodge it by levitating himself over it.

Harry landed to Voldemort's side and winced in pain, but shot of a slashing curse towards Voldemort none the less. Voldemort, who was expecting this, simply stepped aside. He then fired three slashing curses at Harry.

Harry managed to dodge the first curse, but the second and third hit, one hit his side, the other hit his left arm. Harry immediately dropped his wand. The dome around Harry and Voldemort vanished.

Harry knew it was over. Yet he didn't give up yet, he still stood proud, a small smile on his lips. "There are things in life you don't understand Voldemort, the light will never die, someone else will take my place".

Voldemort laughed: "Be that as it may, you are finished, you're all but dead, and your death is imminent". Harry smiled as he answered in a way Dumbledore once answered to him: "To the well organised mind, death is but the next great adventure, but remember this, darkness never lasts".

This sentence seemed to infuriate Voldemort who immediately yelled: "Avada Kedavra". Harry saw the curse as in slow motion approaching him. He gave a sly smile as his life flashed him by.

The time with the Dursley's, Hagrid picking him up in that hut, meeting Ron and Hermione, Quirrel, Chamber of Secrets, Sirius escaping Azkaban, the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the Department of Ministries, Sirius falling through the veil, graduating with top honors from Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione, the battle for Diagon Alley, loosing Hagrid, Albus, Bill, Percy, Fred and Remus, Ron and Neville tortured by deatheaters, loosing Hermione and finally the ruins of Minerva McGonagalls house.

Harry opened his mouth to say three words before the curse hit: "I'm sorry Mione". With that the curse hit him square in the chest and Harry fell to his knees. A small white aura surrounded Harry as he fell. With his last breath he fell to the ground face-down in a puddle of water with his eyes still open, the eyes themselves totally white.

_(Authors note: Let me know what you guys think of the story so far. Feedback is welcomed, also if anyone wants to Beta, I would love the help as English is not my first language)._

Take Care,

Encarnia


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